I Finally Know
by Menyl
Summary: Harry is confused about these new, yet familiar, feelings for Hermione, and can't quite figure out what a boy's gotta do....mundo cheese, if you please!!!


A/N: If you don't like cheesy, gross romantic mush, then I suggest you don't read this 

A/N: If you don't like cheesy, gross romantic mush, then I suggest you don't read this. But if you do, then hey…READ ON!!!!

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I Finally Know

By: Menyl the Goddess of Manipulation

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I've been searching for the girl of my dreams

The one who will give all of her love to me

Harry looked flipped through a photo album filled with him and his friends. He could hardly believe that he was graduating this year. The memories of his seven years at Hogwarts were all preserved in that book. He looked through picture after picture of him and his friends and of him and his girlfriends. The many girlfriends who broke his heart one after another. 

Harry first went out with Cho. She had finally agreed to go out with him during his fifth year, after she had gotten over Cedric's death. The had a fun time together, playing Quidditich everyday and taking long strolls around their big, mysterious school, but all of that soon got old and Harry found that they didn't have as much in common as he originally thought they did. A little while later, Cho dumped him, telling him that he was holding her back from all of her friends.

It was like that for all of the other girls he went out with. Girls from his school, girls from out of school - they were all the same. After a few months of going out with them, Harry would find out that the girl wasn't how she had pictured her to be. He realized that he never knew the girls he went out with at all until he actually went out with them.

What I need is a girl who I already know, through and through. Harry thought. _Someone who I could count on, someone who I trust, someone who I care for. _He immediately knew who he was thinking of, who he wanted. Hermione.

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You've been there as a friend indeed

Someone that I could depend through thick and thin

My strength when I wanted to give in

Hermione. His best friend. The girl who worried sick about him day in and day out, the girl who cared about him for real, and not just because he was the all famous Harry Potter. Harry only wished that Hermione would become the girl who loved him.

He was wrong, though, he knew that. Hermione did love him, but he wasn't sure it was in the way that he wanted it to be. He definitely knew that she loved him as a best friend – she told him so all the time. She didn't even have to tell him because he could see it already. She showed it in the way she was always there for him whenever he needed someone to talk to or a "shoulder to cry on". She showed it in the numerous times that she was willing to die for him. But he knew that anything that she did for him, she would do for Ron, too, because she would do that for any of her best friends. He just wished that he could be someone more to her.

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You're special to me

Made it easy when I felt lonely

If I only knew then what I know now

My search would've ended long ago

Harry couldn't believe it. Hermione. When had his feelings for her started to grow? He knows now that he loves her – he found that out a long while ago – but when had that happened? Now that he thought about it, Harry realized that he loved her every since the first year, when she shown her bravery with the troll. Why didn't he know that he loved her as more than a friend until now, his last year in Hogwarts? He wish he did. It would of saved both of them the heartache that they received in pass relationships. It also would have given them more time for their relationship to progress, if she ever gave him a chance.

Actually, now that Harry thought of it, he realized that their relationship has progressed in almost all areas that a couple goes through, besides being an actual couple. They've fought, they've made up, they've hugged, they've even kissed – on the cheek, mind you. They've talked about the deep, serious stuff, and they've talked about the light-headed, fluffy-giggly stuff. They've been through more together than any regular couple has ever gone through. It's just that they've never been a real couple before.

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I finally know who she is

The girl you've been trying to help me find

And all of this time she's been right here

She's only around me when you are near

It was really weird, though, that he loved her. Hermione was the one who always supported him with the girls he dated, even though he knew she didn't like most of them. She had even set him up with one or two of the girls, trying to find one that will make him happy. The ironic thing was that his own thoughtful personal matchmaker was the only one of the girls who had ever made him truly happy – who _will_ ever make him truly happy. 

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And you spend your time with her everyday

So you know she's perfect in every way

I've been looking for love and she's looking at me

If you look in the mirror, you'll see what I see

Harry didn't see why the other guys she went out with broke up with her. Her shortest relationship, with Ron, had ended on happy terms, each deciding that it was too weird for both of them to go out. Her last relationship, on the other hand, had been a big pitfall for her. She had been going out with Seamus Finnigan for about a year until he suddenly dropped it on her that he was in love with Lavender Brown. Hermione was heartbroken and Harry was enraged. He didn't speak to Seamus for about a month afterwards and it took about a year for their friendship to recover. Hermione eventually got over Seamus, but her self-esteem as a girl – or more, as the women she had been turning into – had been crushed into a thousand pieces.

To him, Hermione _was_ perfect. She was smart, so beautiful and extremely caring to all things. It was almost an unnatural perfection, but then again, maybe he just knew her for so long that he stopped noticing her flaws and focused on her abilities. Or maybe he loved her _despite_ all her flaws. Harry guessed that if he loved someone despite their flaws, he could love anyone he wanted to. Or it could be that he just knew Hermione so well that her flaws became part of her, and it was all of her that he was in love with.

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Now I'm in a predicament and I don't know how to explain

To a friend that been a friend for so, so long

Should I tell you how I feel or leave it alone

What was he going to do? Hermione's been one of the best friends he has ever had in his entire life. Harry knew that he couldn't stop these feelings he was having for her, but what if she didn't feel them back? He cherished her friendship so much, and he didn't want something like this hanging over their heads. It could ruin a friendship.

Then again, his feelings for her was so great, and growing so rapidly that he felt like he didn't let it out, he would go mentally deranged. And what if she did feel the same for him as he did for her? Harry knew that he couldn't let the opportunity pass, say she ever did love him back.

"Thinking about Hermione, again, aren't you?"

Harry jumped, as Ron's voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Oh, come of it, Harry," Ron chuckled, "I know you. You always get this sort of dazed, 'I am stupid' look, whenever you see her, talk about her, and I suspect, think about her."

Never in his life would Harry have realized that he was being that transparent in ways of girls. Not girls, just Hermione. He must have looked extremely shocked, because Ron suddenly burst out laughing.

"Harry," Ron said in between laughing gasps, "don't worry. I suspect she may feel a bit the same for you as you do for her. Poor Hermione, she gets the 'I am extremely stupid' look whenever she's with you."

"No she doesn't!" Harry said, defensively, ready to get all riled up until he finally clued in to what Ron was trying to do. 

He looked up at Ron, who nodded and said, "Go Harry. Now, before you lose your poor, pathetic nerve." Harry punched Ron hard once on his left shoulder before he ran out of the room. 

"Thanks," he said

"Harry, you prat!" Ron exclaimed, "That hurt!"

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It's amazin' how intimidating I never knew that it was you

After all this time it never crossed my mind

That in a friend a love I would find

Harry found Hermione sitting alone in the common room. He approached her cautiously, contemplating on what he should say to her. _You could still go back, you know,_ he was telling himself. _Go back now while there's still time._

"No," Harry said softly. He was going to do this. "Uh, hi, Hermione."

Hermione looked up from the book she was reading and her face seemed to light up when she saw him. "Hi, Harry," she smiled.

"So, uh, whatcha reading?" he asked, even though he already knew. It was the book she hasn't let go of for the past week.

"Hogwarts A Future. First edition." Hermione answered. She looked at him curiously. "Harry, is there anything wrong? Because you look extremely nervous about something." Harry was amazed at how perceptive she was at reading him. He wondered if she knew what he felt for her, of if it was just as oblivious to her as her feelings were to him. 

And still are, Harry thought, miserably, _What if Ron was wrong, and she doesn't like me? _It didn't matter anyway. He was going to go through this, no matter what.

"Hermione," Harry said, "There is something that I want to tell you."

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You're special to me

And I hope that we can be much more

My heart is in your hands

So, why don't we give love a chance

"Uh, you know," Harry began nervously, "you and I have been friends for an awfully long time…"

Hermione looked up at him patiently.

"And, uh, you know. When, uh, two friends become closer, their, er, feelings for each other become more, uh… heartfelt." Harry mumbled under his breath, "Oh, this is so stupid. It's like talking about the bloody birds and the bees."

"Harry, what are you trying to say?" Hermione pressed on, gently.

"What I'm t-trying to s-say is," Harry stammered, "Well, what I m-mean to t-tell you is that…"

Hermione waited. And waited.

"Oh, bloody hell, Harry! Just go in for the kill!" Ron shouted from the top of the stairway.

"Ron, get lost!" Hermione yelled up to him.

"Nobody ever appreciates my work of 'guiding the way'." Ron grumbled as he stomped up the stairs.

Hermione mumbled, "That Ron. He could be such a idiot sometimes." 

"I love you." Harry blurted out.

"Yeah, I love you too, Harry"

"No, Hermione," Harry said, "I mean, I really love you. You know, like _love_ love you."

"What?" Hermione asked, as if not hearing right.

Harry smiled, and then said it again, surely and freely, "I love you, Hermione." 

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I'm waiting on the love

Hermione looked on in shock. Harry's never seen her look so uncertain for anything before. He was worried. What if she really didn't love her and he just wrecked the friendship for the both of them? He guess it didn't matter, though, because either way he would have been miserable. Not telling her would have killed him, yet telling her, as he could see now, just hurt a thousand times more.

"Hermione, please say something."

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The love stands through anything and everything

It was the most painful twenty-four seconds of his life. It seemed to pass by like an eternity. He will get through this, though. He knew he did the right thing by telling her, now he just had to face the fire and wait for her answer. 

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Just please answer soon. Harry silently pleaded.

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With open arms I'm giving you my all

And every part of me

Hermione finally recovered from her shock and found her voice. "Harry, are you serious?"

"Hermione, I'm more serious about this than I've ever been about anything else in the world. I love you like and insane, crazy love and it's driving me insane keeping it in me. I loved you since I met you, and I know this love is real because I am certain that I am going to keep on loving you for the rest of my life."

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'Cause I know you're my destiny

"Please say something Hermione." Harry pleaded with her, "Just tell me what you feel, _please_. Please forget about what's happened to you before in past relationships. I'm not like that. This is different, because I know this is for real. I know this because I know you are real and you're meant for me just like angels are meant to be in heaven."

"Very poetic, Harry." Hermione said softly.

Harry looked back at her, his eyes in agony for her to tell him her feelings.

"Harry," Hermione smiled at him with tears in her eyes, "I love you too. You know I do. I've always loved you and I always will."

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You will see'

Finally

Harry took a step forward and embraced Hermione in his arms. He looked at her eyes and said two words. "Thank you." Harry then closed the tiny space between him and Hermione and, with all his passion, love, and frustration, he kissed her, knowing it'll be the first kiss of many with the girl he's been looking for all his life.

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I finally know who she is

The girl you've been trying to help me find

And all of this time she's been right here

She's only around me when you are near

And you spend your time with her everyday

So you know she's perfect in every way

I've been looking for love and she's looking at me

If you look in the mirror, you'll see what I see

Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowlings. The song, "I Finally Know" belongs to Boyz II Men.

A/N: So, what do you guys think about it? Yeah, I know. It's sappy, mushy, and almost all the stuff that make most people puke but make me smile. What can I say? I'm a romantic fool. So sue me. Actually, to be brutally honest, I'm not totally fond of it. It's full of words and hardly any action, but I was in a wordy mood when I wrote it. Flame me all you want – I love constructive criticism (it's a disease I have). I love the song, though. What do you of think it? It's my favourite. It's in Boyz II Men's latest album, Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya. Excellent c.d., if I do say so myself. _EXCELLENT_.


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